ALICE IN CHAINS will enter Studio X in Seattle later this month to begin recording the long-awaited follow-up to 2013’s “The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here” album for a tentative early 2018 release. Helming the sessions once again will be Nick Raskulinecz, who produced the band’s last two studio efforts, 2009’s “Black Gives Way To Blue” and the aforementioned “The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here”.
During an appearance on the “Let There Be Talk” podcast, ALICE IN CHAINS bassist Mike Inez said (hear audio below): “We’re going back home to do a record, really. The last two [albums] were [recorded] in L.A., and they were cool. I just feel in 2017, it’s time for ALICE IN CHAINS to go back to Seattle — drink that water, breathe that air. My HEART family’s up there. There’s just such a history — every street corner for us is a memory; crazy shit happened or some beautiful stuff. Seattle’s a really special place, especially this time of year. It’s the best.”
According to Inez, ALICE IN CHAINS is not currently signed to a label, having completed its previous two-record contract with the Universal Music Group. “This [upcoming album], we’re not sure where it’s gonna land,” the bassist said. “We wanna partner with somebody, and we’ll see where it goes. I mean, we financed [‘Black Gives Way To Blue’] on our own too, so we’re not too worried about that stuff. We’ve just gotta get it out to… ALICE is a global band, so it has to be a significant label that has the infrastructure where you can get this stuff in stores in, like, fucking Singapore when we play or South America… wherever.”
Studio X, which was originally owned by Ann and Nancy Wilson of the band HEART under the name Bad Animals, was the studio where ALICE IN CHAINS recorded its 1995 self-titled album.
“The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here” was the band’s second disc with singer William Duvall, who joined in 2006 following the death of Layne Staley.
“The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here” sold 62,000 copies in its first week of release. It followed up 2009’s “Black Gives Way To Blue”.
The first two singles from “The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here”, “Hollow” and “Stone”, both hit No. 1 on the rock radio airplay charts, while the album itself debuted on the Billboard album chart at No. 2.
DuVall told the Phoenix New Times last year that ALICE IN CHAINS was in a fortunate position to be able to keep touring without any new material. “[We are] lucky enough to have the kind of fans that will show up regardless, and there is obviously never any shortage of songs to play,” he said.
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/326100831″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true” width=”100%” height=”450″ iframe=”true” /]
